Cyber Crime

Cyber crime is broken down by the Home Office into two forms: ‘pure cyber crime’ and ‘cyber enabled’.

Pure cyber crime: These are crimes where a digital system is targeted by means of a criminal attack. These attacks are designed to disrupt IT infrastructure, remove data and/or compromise the integrity of data. An example of this could be having your Facebook or online banking account hacked for malicious means.

Cyber enabled: Existing crimes are perpetrated through the use of the internet. An example of this could be someone being emailed a cyber scam asking for money.

The above hyperlink for ‘Action Fraud’ takes you to the national site for reporting on-line fraud. The site also contains some very useful information on identifying some common tricks used by fraudsters and good advice on being safe on-line.

The best advice you can give is to ask them to make contact with the ‘Action Fraud’ site themselves as they will be most familiar with communicating the circumstances giving rise to their concerns. You can offer support, by being present if possible when the contact is first made.

The TOR ('The Onion Router') network, aka 'dark net', is a means of accessing the internet whilst maintaining anonymity. This is often used by cyber criminals to hide their criminality. You can learn more about the TOR network by reading this BBC article.

What is cyber crime?

'Cyber crime' is a term used to define any crime that takes place online or where a digital system is targeted by means of a criminal attack.

Nottinghamshire Police takes cyber criminality very seriously, with cyber-enabled crime (existing crimes that have been transformed in scale or form by use of the Internet) being one of our strategic priorities. Victims of cyber crime can be a single person, a group of people, or an organisation. Some examples of how cyber crime can affect you as an individual or group are:

a person or group pretending to be someone they are not while online for the purposes of extracting money from you

spam emails for the purposes of infecting devices and stealing personal information, or scam emails attempting to part you with your money

Large companies or organisations may also face the danger of cyber breaches or hacks - where cyber criminals attempt to disrupt business or steal data owned by a business - for the purposes of corporate espionage, ransom, or to de-fraud that business' customers.

High-profile cases in recent years you might remember include the Wannacry ransomware in 2017, and data breaches at Talk Talk in 2015, and Sony Pictures in 2014.

Protect yourself against cyber crime

By taking a few simple steps to educate yourself about the dangers of cyber crime and how you can protect yourself, you are making it much more difficult for the criminals to take advantage.

Nottinghamshire Police have teamed up with Get Safe Online, an expert in advance about keeping yourself protected and safe while using technology in a world that is increasingly based online in your personal and professional life.

Here, you can find out lots more about all aspects of staying safe online, including: